The Book Of Revelation

JB REVELATION Chapter 1

Prologue

1:1 This is the revelation given by God to Jesus Christ so that he could tell his servants about the things which are now to take place[*a] very soon; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John,

1:2 and John has written down everything he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ.

1:3 Happy the man who reads this prophecy, and happy those who listen to him, if they treasure all that it says, because the Time is close.

I. THE LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES OF ASIA

Address and greeting.[*b]

1:4 From John, to the seven churches of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits in his presence before his throne,

1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood,

1:6 and made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

1:7 It is he who is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. This is the truth. Amen.

1:8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

The beginning of the vision

1:9 My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos[*c] for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus;

1:10 it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet,

1:11 ‘Write down all that you see in a book, and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea’.

1:12 I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands

1:13 and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man,[*d] dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.

1:14 His head and his hair were white as white wool or as snow, his eyes like a burning flame,

1:15 his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean.[*e]

1:16 In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force.

1:17 When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One,

1:18 I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld.

1:19 Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come[*f]

1:20 The secret of the seven stars you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp-stands is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp-stands are the seven churches themselves.

JB REVELATION Chapter 2

1. Ephesus

2:1 ‘Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus and say, “Here is the message of the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who lives surrounded by the seven golden lamp-stands:

2:2 I know all about you: how hard you work and how much you put up with. I know you cannot stand wicked men, and how you tested the impostors who called themselves apostles and proved they were liars.

2:3 know, too, that you have patience, and have suffered for my name without growing tired.

2:4 Nevertheless, I have this complaint to make; you have less love now than you used to.

2:5 Think where you were before you fell; repent, and do as you used to at first, or else, if you will not repent, I shall come to you and take your lamp-stand from its place.

2:6 It is in your favour, nevertheless, that you loathe as I do what the Nicolaitans are doing.

2:7 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: those who prove victorious I will feed from the tree of life set in God’s paradise.”[*a]

2. Smyrna

2:8 ‘Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna and say, “Here is the message of the First and the Last, who was dead and has come to life again:

2:9 I know the trials you have had, and how poor you are – though you are rich – and the slanderous accusations that have been made by the people who profess to be Jews but are really members of the synagogue of Satan.

2:10 Do not be afraid of the sufferings that are coming to you: I tell you, the devil is going to send some of you to prison to test you, and you must face an ordeal for ten days.[*b] Even if you have to die, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life for your prize.

2:11 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: for those who prove victorious there is nothing to be afraid of in the second death.”

3. Pergamum

2:12 ‘Write to the angel of the church in Pergamum and say, “Here is the message of the one who has the sharp sword, double-edged:

2:13 I know where you live, in the place where Satan is enthroned, and that you still hold firmly to my name, and did not disown your faith in me even when my faithful witness, Antipas, was killed in your own town, where Satan lives.[*c]

2:14 Nevertheless, I have one or two complaints to make: some of you are followers of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the Israelites so that they committed adultery by eating food that had been sacrificed to idols;

2:15 and among you, too, there are some as bad who accept what the Nicolaitans teach.

2:16 You must repent, or I shall soon come to you and attack these people with the sword out of my mouth.

2:17 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: to those who prove victorious I will give the hidden manna and a white stone[*d] – a stone with a new name written on it, known only to the man who receives it.”

4. Thyatira

2:18 ‘Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira and say, “Here is the message of the Son of God who has eyes like a burning flame and feet like burnished bronze:

2:19 I know all about you and how charitable you are; I know your faith and devotion and how much you put up with, and I know how you are still making progress.

2:20 Nevertheless, I have a complaint to make: you are encouraging the woman Jezebel[*e] who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching she is luring my servants away to commit the adultery of eating food which has been sacrificed to idols.

2:21 I have given her time to reform but she is not willing to change her adulterous life.

2:22 Now I am consigning her to bed, and all her partners in adultery to troubles that will test them severely, unless they repent of their practices;

2:23 and I will see that her children die, so that all the churches realise that it is I who search heart and loins and give each one of you what your behaviour deserves.[*f]

2:24 But on the rest of you in Thyatira, all of you who have not accepted this teaching or learnt the secrets of Satan, as they are called, I am not laying any special duty;

2:25 but hold firmly on to what you already have until I come.

2:26 To those who prove victorious, and keep working for me until the end,

2:27 I will give the authority over the pagans[*g]

2:28 which I myself have been given by my Father, to rule them with an iron sceptre and shatter them like earthenware. And I will give him the Morning Star.[*h]

2:29 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

JB REVELATION Chapter 3

5. Sardis

3:1 ‘Write to the angel of the church in Sardis and say, “Here is the message of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know all about you: how you are reputed to be alive and yet are dead.

3:2 Wake up; revive what little you have left: it is dying fast. So far I have failed to notice anything in the way you live that my God could possibly call perfect,

3:3 and yet do you remember how eager you were. when you first heard the message? Hold on to that. Repent. If you do not wake up, I shall come to you like a thief, without telling you at what hour to expect me.

3:4 There are a few in Sardis, it is true, who have kept their robes from being dirtied, and they are fit to come with me, dressed in white.

3:5 Those who prove victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes; I shall not blot their names out of the book of life, but acknowledge their names in the presence of my Father and his angels.

3:6 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

6. Philadelphia

3:7 Write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia and say, “Here is the message of the holy and faithful one who has the key of David, so that when he opens, nobody can close, and when he closes, nobody can open:[*a]

3:8 I know all about you; and now I have opened in front of you a door that nobody will be able to close – and I know that though you are not very strong, you have kept my commandments and not disowned my name.

3:9 Now I am going to make the synagogue of Satan – those who profess to be Jews, but are liars, because they are no such thing – I will make them come and fall at your feet[*b] and admit that you are the people that I love.[*c]

3:10 Because you have kept my commandment to endure trials, I will keep you safe in the time of trial which is going to come for the whole world, to test the people of the world.

3:11 Soon I shall be with you: hold firmly to what you already have, and let nobody take your prize away from you.

3:12 Those who prove victorious I will make into pillars in the sanctuary of my God, and they will stay there for ever; I will inscribe on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God in heaven, and my own new name as well.

3:13 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

7. Laodicea

3:14 ‘Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea and say, “Here is the message of the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the ultimate source of God’s creation:

3:15 I know all about you: how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other,

3:16 but since you are neither, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth.

3:17 You say to yourself, ‘I am rich, I have made a fortune, and have everything I want’, never realising that you are wretchedly and pitiably poor, and blind and naked too.

3:18 I warn you, buy from me the gold that has been tested in the fire to make you really rich, and white robes to clothe you and cover your shameful nakedness, and eye ointment to put on your eyes so that you are able to see.

3:19 I am the one who reproves and disciplines all those he loves:[*d] so repent in real earnest.

3:20 Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with him.

3:21 Those who prove victorious I will allow to share my throne, just as I was victorious myself and took my place with my Father on his throne.

3:22 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”‘

JB REVELATION Chapter 4

II. THE PROPHETIC VISIONS

A. THE PRELUDE TO THE GREAT DAY

God entrusts the future of the world to the Lamb

4:1 Then, in my vision, I saw a door open in heaven and heard the same voice speaking to me, the voice like a trumpet, saying, ‘Come up here: I will show you what is to come in the future’.

4:2 With that, the Spirit possessed me and I saw a throne standing in heaven, and the One who was sitting on the throne,

4:3 and the Person sitting there looked like a diamond and a ruby. There was a rainbow encircling the throne, and this looked like an emerald.[*a]

4:4 Round the throne in a circle were twenty-four thrones, and on them I saw twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white robes with golden crowns on their heads.

4:5 Flashes of lightning were coming from the throne, and the sound of peals of thunder, and in front of the throne there were seven flaming lamps burning, the seven Spirits of God.

4:6 Between the throne and myself was a sea that seemed to be made of glass, like crystal. In the centre, grouped round the throne itself, were four animals [*b] with many eyes, in front and behind.

4:7 The first animal was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third animal had a human face, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle.

4:8 Each of the four animals had six wings and had eyes all the way round as well as inside; and day and night they never stopped singing: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; he was, he is and he is to come’.

4:9 Every time the animals glorified and honoured and gave thanks to the One sitting on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,

4:10 the twenty-four elders prostrated themselves before him to worship the One who lives for ever and ever, and threw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying,

4:11 ‘You are our Lord and our God, you are worthy of glory and honour and power, because you made all the universe and it was only by your will that everything was made and exists’.

JB REVELATION Chapter 5

5:1 I saw that in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne there was a scroll that had writing on back and front[*a] and was sealed with seven seals.

5:2 Then I saw a powerful angel who called with a loud voice, ‘Is there anyone worthy to open the scroll and break the seals of it?’

5:3 But there was no one, in heaven or on the earth or under the earth, who was able to open the scroll and read it.

5:4 I wept bitterly because there was nobody fit to open the scroll and read it,

5:5 but one of the elders said to me, ‘There is no need to cry: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root[*b] of David, has triumphed, and he will open the scroll and the seven seals of it’.

5:6 Then I saw, standing between the throne with its four animals and the circle of the elders, a Lamb that seemed to have been sacrificed; it had seven horns, and it had seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits God has sent out all over the world.[*c]

5:7 The Lamb came forward to take the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne,

5:8 and when he took it, the four animals prostrated themselves before him and with them the twenty-four elders; each one of them was holding a harp and had a golden bowl full of incense made of the prayers of the saints.

5:9 They sang a new hymn: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and break the seals of it, because you were sacrificed, and with your blood you bought men for God of every race, language, people and nation

5:10 and made them a line of kings and priests,[*d] to serve our God and to rule the world’.

5:11 In my vision, I heard the sound of an immense number of angels gathered round the throne and the animals and the elders; there were ten thousand times ten thousand of them[*e] and thousands upon thousands,

5:12 shouting, ‘The Lamb that was sacrificed is worthy to be given power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing’.

5:13 Then I heard all the living things in creation – everything that lives in the air, and on the ground, and under the ground, and in the sea, crying, ‘To the One who is sitting on the throne and to the Lamb, be all praise, honour, glory and power, for ever and ever’.

5:14 And the four animals said, ‘Amen’; and the elders prostrated themselves to worship.

JB REVELATION Chapter 6

The Lamb breaks the seven seals

6:1 Then I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four animals shout in a voice like thunder, ‘Come’.

6:2 Immediately a white horse appeared, and the rider on it was holding a bow; he was given the victor’s crown and he went away, to go from victory to victory.

6:3 When he broke the second seal, I heard the second animal shout, ‘Come’.

6:4 And out came another horse, bright red, and its rider was given this duty: to take away peace from the earth and set people killing each other. He was given a huge sword.

6:5 When he broke the third seal, I heard the third animal shout, ‘Come’. Immediately a black horse appeared, and its rider was holding a pair of scales;

6:6 and I seemed to hear a voice shout from among the four animals and say, ‘A ration of corn for a day’s wages, and three rations of barley for a day’s wages, but do not tamper with the oil or the wine’.

6:7 When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal shout, ‘Come’.

6:8 Immediately another horse appeared, deathly pale, and its rider was called Plague, and Hades followed at his heels. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague and wild beasts.[*a]

6:9 When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it.

6:10 They shouted aloud, ‘Holy, faithful Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?’

6:11 Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the roll was complete and their fellow servants and brothers had been killed just as they had been.

6:12 In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over,

6:13 and the stars of the sky fell[*b] on to the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it;

6:14 the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places.

6:15 Then all the earthly rulers, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, took to the mountains to hide in caves and among the rocks.[*c]

6:16 They said to the mountains[*d] and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb.

6:17 For the Great Day of his anger has come, and who can survive it?'[*e]

JB REVELATION Chapter 7

God’s servants will be preserved

7:1 Next I saw four angels, standing at the four corners of the earth[*a], holding the four winds of the world back to keep them from blowing over the land or the sea or in the trees.

7:2 Then I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God; he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea,

7:3 ‘Wait before you do any damage on land or at sea or to the trees, until we have put the seal on the foreheads[*b] of the servants of our God’.

7:4 Then I heard how many were sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand,[*c] out of all the tribes of Israel.

7:5 From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand had been sealed; from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand;

7:6 from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand;

7:7 from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand;

7:8 from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; and from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.

The rewarding of the saints

7:9 After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted aloud,

7:10 ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

7:11 And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four animals, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words,

7:12 ‘Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.’

7:13 One of the elders then spoke, and asked me, ‘Do you know who these people are, dressed in white robes, and where they have come from?’

7:14 I answered him, ‘You can tell me, my lord’. Then he said, ‘These are the people who have been through the great persecution,[*d] and because they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb,

7:15 they now stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.

7:16 They will never hunger or thirst again; neither the sun nor scorching wind will ever plague them,

7:17 because the Lamb who is at the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water;[*e] and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.[*f]

JB REVELATION Chapter 8

The seventh seal

8:1 The Lamb then broke the seventh seal, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.[*a]

The prayers of the saints bring the coming of the Great Day nearer

8:2 Next I saw seven trumpets being given to the seven angels who stand in the presence of God.

8:3 Another angel, who had a golden censer,[*b] came and stood at the altar.[*c] A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne;

8:4 and so from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints.

8:5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire from the altar, which he then threw down on to the earth; immediately there came peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, and the earth shook.

The first four trumpets

8:6 The seven angels that had the seven trumpets now made ready to sound them.

8:7 The first blew his trumpet and, with that, hail and fire, mixed with blood, were dropped on the earth; a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of all trees, and every blade of grass was burnt.

8:8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and it was as though a great mountain, all on fire, had been dropped into the sea: a third of the sea turned into blood,

8:9 a third of all the living things in the sea were killed, and a third of all ships were destroyed.

8:10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star fell from the sky, burning like a ball of fire, and it fell on a third of all rivers and springs;

8:11 this was the star called Wormwood, and a third of all water turned to bitter wormwood, so that many people died from drinking it.

8:12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were blasted, so that the light went out of a third of them and for a third of the day there was no illumination, and the same with the night.

8:13 In my vision, I heard an eagle, calling aloud as it flew high overhead, ‘Trouble, trouble, trouble, for all the people on earth at the sound of the other three trumpets which the three angels are going to blow’.

JB REVELATION Chapter 9

The fifth trumpet

9:1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star[*a] that had fallen from heaven on to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft leading down to the Abyss.[*b]

9:2 When he unlocked the shaft of the Abyss, smoke poured up out of the Abyss like the smoke from a huge furnace[*c] so that the sun and the sky were darkened by it,

9:3 and out of the smoke dropped locusts which were given the powers that scorpions have on the earth:

9:4 they were forbidden to harm any fields or crops or trees and told only to attack any men who were without God’s seal on their foreheads.

9:5 They were not to kill them, but to give them pain for five months, and the pain was to be the pain of a scorpion’s sting.

9:6 When this happens, men will long for death and not find it anywhere ;[*d] they will want to die and death will evade them.

9:7 To look at, these locusts were like horses armoured for battle[*e]; they had things that looked like gold crowns on their heads, and faces that seemed human,

9:8 and hair like women’s hair, and teeth like lions’ teeth.

9:9 They had body-armour like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings sounded like a great charge of horses and chariots into battle.

9:10 Their tails were like scorpions’, with stings, and it was with them that they were able to injure people for five months.

9:11 As their leader they had their emperor, the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, or Apollyon[*f] in Greek.

9:12 That was the first of the troubles; there are still two more to come.

The sixth trumpet

9:13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice come out of the four horns of the golden altar in front of God.

9:14 It spoke to the sixth angel with the trumpet, and said, ‘Release the four angels that are chained up at the great river Euphrates’.

9:15 These four angels had been put there ready for this hour of this day of this month of this year, and now they were released to destroy a third of the human race.

9:16 I learnt how many there were in their army: twice ten thousand times ten thousand mounted men.

9:17 In my vision I saw the horses, and the riders with their breastplates of flame colour, hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow; the horses had lions’ heads, and fire, smoke and sulphur were coming out of their mouths.

9:18 It was by these three plagues, the fire, the smoke and the sulphur coming out of their mouths, that the one third of the human race was killed.

9:19 All the horses’ power was in their mouths and their tails: their tails were like snakes, and had heads that were able to wound.

9:20 But the rest of the human race, who escaped these plagues, refused either to abandon the things they had made with their own hands[*g] – the idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood[*h] that can neither see nor hear nor move – or to stop worshipping devils.

9:21 Nor did they give up their murdering, or witchcraft, or fornication or stealing.

JB REVELATION Chapter 10

The imminence of the last punishment

10:1 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were pillars of fire.

10:2 In his hand he had a small scroll, unrolled; he put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land

10:3 and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring. At this, seven claps of thunder made themselves heard

10:4 and when the seven thunderclaps had spoken, I was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, ‘Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down’.

10:5 Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven,[*a]

10:6 and swore by the One who lives for ever and ever, and made heaven and all that is in it, and earth and all it bears, and the sea and all it holds,[*b] ‘The time of waiting is over;

10:7 at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, God’s secret intention will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the Good News told to his servants the prophets’.

The seer eats the small scroll

10:8 Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. ‘Go,’ it said ‘and take that open scroll out of the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.’

10:9 I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, ‘Take it and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey’.

10:10 So I took it out of the angel’s hand, and swallowed it; it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour.

10:11 Then I was told, ‘You are to prophesy again, this time about many different nations and countries and languages and emperors’.

JB REVELATION Chapter 11

The two witnesses

11:1 I was given a long cane as a measuring rod, and I was told, ‘Go and measure God’s sanctuary, and the altar, and the people who worship there;

11:2 but leave out the outer court and do not measure it, because it has been handed over to pagans – they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months.[*a]

11:3 But I shall send my two witnesses to prophesy for those twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth.

11:4 These are the two olive trees[*b] and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the world.[*c]

11:5 Fire can come from their mouths and consume their enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and if anybody does try to harm them he will certainly be killed in this way.

11:6 They are able to lock up the sky so that it does not rain as long as they are prophesying; they are able to turn water into blood and strike the whole world with any plague as often as they like.

11:7 When they have completed their witnessing, the beast that comes out of the Abyss is going to make war on them and overcome them[*d] and kill them.

11:8 Their corpses will lie in the main street of the Great City known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was crucified.[*e]

11:9 Men out of every people, race, language and nation will stare at their corpses, for three-and-a-half days, not letting them be buried,

11:10 and the people of the world will be glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other, because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world.’

11:11 After the three-and-a-half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up,[*f] and everybody who saw it happen was terrified;

11:12 then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here’, and while their enemies were watching, they went up to heaven in a cloud.

11:13 Immediately, there was a violent earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand persons[*g] were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors, overcome with fear, could only praise the God of heaven.

The seventh trumpet

11:14 That was the second of the troubles; the third is to come quickly after it.

11:15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and voices could be heard shouting in heaven, calling, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever’.

11:16 The twenty-four elders, enthroned in the presence of God, prostrated themselves and touched the ground with their foreheads worshipping God

11:17 with these words, ‘We give thanks to you, Almighty Lord God, He-Is-and-He-Was, for using your great power and beginning your reign.

11:18 The nations were seething with rage[*h] and now the time has come for your own anger, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for all who worship you, small or great, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.’

11:19 Then the sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake, and violent hail.

JB REVELATION Chapter 12

The vision of the woman and the dragon

12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.

12:2 She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.

12:3 Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet.

12:4 Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth,[*a] and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother.

12:5 The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre,[*b] and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne,

12:6 while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready, for her to be looked after in the twelve hundred and sixty days.

12:7 And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels,

12:8 but they were defeated and driven out of heaven.

12:9 The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.

12:10 Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ, now that the persecutor, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down.

12:11 They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the witness of their martyrdom, because even in the face of death they would not cling to life.

12:12 Let the heavens rejoice and all who live there; but for you, earth and sea, trouble is coming – because the devil has gone down to you in a rage, knowing that his days are numbered.’

12:13 As soon as the devil found himself thrown down to the earth, he sprang in pursuit of the woman, the mother of the male child,

12:14 but she was given a huge pair of eagle’s wings to fly away from the serpent into the desert, to the place where she was to be looked after for a year and twice a year and half a year[*c]

12:15 So the serpent vomited water from his mouth, like a river, after the woman, to sweep her away in the current,

12:16 but the earth came to her rescue; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river thrown up by the dragon’s jaws.

12:17 Then the dragon was enraged with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, that is, all who obey God’s commandments and bear witness for Jesus.

The dragon delegates his power to the beast

12:18 I was standing on the seashore.

JB REVELATION Chapter 13

13:1 Then I saw a beast emerge from the sea:[*a] it had seven heads and ten horns, with a coronet on each of its ten horns, and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles.[*b]

13:2 I saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion;[*c] the dragon had handed over to it his own power and his throne and his worldwide authority.

13:3 I saw that one of its heads seemed to have had a fatal wound but that this deadly injury had healed and, after that, the whole world had marvelled and followed the beast.

13:4 They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast, saying, ‘Who can compare with the beast?[*d] How could anybody defeat him?’

13:5 For forty-two months the beast was allowed to mouth its boasts[*e] and blasphemies and to do whatever it wanted;

13:6 and it mouthed its blasphemies against God, against his name, his heavenly Tent and all those who are sheltered there.

13:7 It was allowed to make war against the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race, people, language and nation;

13:8 and all people of the world will worship it, that is, everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the sacrificial Lamb.

13:9 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen:

13:10 Captivity for those who are destined for captivity; the sword for those who are to die by the sword.[*f] This is why the saints must have constancy and faith.

The false prophet as the slave of the beast

13:11 Then I saw a second beast;[*g] it emerged from the ground; it had two horns like a lamb, but made a noise like a dragon.

13:12 This second beast was servant to the first beast, and extended its authority everywhere, making the world and all its people worship the first beast, which had had the fatal wound and had been healed.

13:13 And it worked great miracles, even to calling down fire from heaven on to the earth while people watched.

13:14 Through the miracles which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first beast, it was able to win over the people of the world and persuade them to put up a statue in honour of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and still lived.

13:15 It was allowed to breathe life into this statue, so that the statue of the beast was able to speak, and to have anyone who refused to worship the statue of the beast[*h] put to death.

13:16 He compelled everyone – small and great, rich and poor, slave and citizen – to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead,

13:17 and made it illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name.

13:18 There is need for shrewdness here: if anyone is clever enough he may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a man, the number 666[*i].

JB REVELATION Chapter 14

The companions of the Lamb

14:1 Next in my vision I saw Mount Zion, and standing on it a Lamb who had with him a hundred and forty-four thousand people, all with his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

14:2 I heard a sound coming out of the sky like the sound of the ocean or the roar of thunder; it seemed to be the sound of harpists playing their harps.

14:3 There in front of the throne they were singing a new hymn in the presence of the four animals and the elders, a hymn that could only be learnt by the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the world.

14:4 These are the ones who have kept their virginity[*a] and not been defiled with women; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they have been redeemed from amongst men to be the first-fruits for God[*b] and for the Lamb.

14:5 They never allowed a lie to pass their lips[*c] and no fault can be found in them.

Angels announce the day of Judgement

14:6 Then I saw another angel, flying high overhead, sent to announce the Good News of eternity to all who live on the earth, every nation, race, language and tribe.

14:7 He was calling, ‘Fear God and praise him, because the time has come for him to sit in judgement; worship the maker of heaven and earth and sea[*d] and every water-spring’.

14:8 A second angel followed him, calling, ‘Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen,[*e] Babylon which gave the whole world the wine of God’s anger to drink’.

14:9 A third angel followed, shouting aloud, ‘All those who worship the beast and his statue, or have had themselves branded on the hand or forehead,

14:10 will be made to drink the wine of God’s fury which is ready, undiluted, in his cup of anger; in fire and brimstone[*f] they will be tortured in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb

14:11 and the smoke of their torture will go up for ever[*g] and ever. There will be no respite, night or day, for those who worshipped the beast or its statue or accepted branding with its name.’

14:12 This is why there must be constancy in the saints who keep the commandments of God and faith in Jesus.

14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say to me, ‘Write down: Happy are those who die in the Lord! Happy indeed, the Spirit says; now they can rest for ever after their work, since their good deeds go with them.’

The harvest and vintage of the pagans

14:14 Now in my vision I saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

14:15 Then another angel came out of the sanctuary, and shouted aloud to the one sitting on the cloud, ‘Put your sickle in and reap: harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe'[*h].

14:16 Then the one sitting on the cloud set his sickle to work on the earth, and the earth’s harvest was reaped.

14:17 Another angel, who also carried a sharp sickle, came out of the temple in heaven,

14:18 and the angel in charge of the fire left the altar and shouted aloud to the one with the sharp sickle, ‘Put your sickle in and cut all the bunches off the vine of the earth; all its grapes are ripe’.

14:19 So the angel set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of God’s anger,

14:20 outside the city, where it was trodden until the blood that came out of the winepress was up to the horses’ bridles as far away as sixteen hundred furlongs.

JB REVELATION Chapter 15

The hymn of Moses and the Lamb

15:1 What I saw next, in heaven, was a great and wonderful sign: seven angels were bringing the seven plagues that are the last of all, because they exhaust the anger of God.

15:2 It seemed to see a glass lake suffused with fire, and standing by the lake of glass, those who had fought against the beast and won, and against his statue and the number which is his name. They all had harps from God,

15:3 and they were singing the hymn of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb: ‘How great and wonderful are all your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are all your ways, King of nations.

15:4 Who would not revere and praise your name, O Lord? You alone are holy, and all the pagans will come and adore you for the many acts of justice you have shown.'[*a]

The seven bowls of plagues

15:5 After this, in my vision, the sanctuary, the Tent of the Testimony, opened in heaven,

15:6 and out came the seven angels with the seven plagues, wearing pure white linen, fastened round their waists with golden girdles.

15:7 One of the four animals gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the anger of God who lives for ever and ever.

15:8 The smoke from the glory and the power of God filled the temple so that no one could go into it[*b] until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

JB REVELATION Chapter 16

16:1 Then I heard a voice from the sanctuary shouting to the seven angels, ‘Go, and empty the seven bowls of God’s anger over the earth’.

16:2 The first angel went and emptied his bowl over the earth; at once, on all the people who had been branded with the mark of the beast and had worshipped its statue, there came disgusting and virulent sores.

16:3 The second angel emptied his bowl over the sea, and it turned to blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living creature in the sea died.

16:4 The third angel emptied his bowl into the rivers and water-springs and they turned into blood.

16:5 Then I heard the angel of water say, ‘You are the holy He-Is-and-He-Was, the Just One, and this is a just punishment:

16:6 they spilt the blood of the saints and the prophets, and blood is what you have given them to drink; it is what they deserve’.

16:7 And I heard the altar itself say, ‘Truly, Lord God Almighty, the punishments you give are true and just’.

16:8 The fourth angel emptied his bowl over the sun and it was made to scorch people with its flames;

16:9 but though people were scorched by the fierce heat of it they cursed the name of God who had the power to cause such plagues, and they would not repent and praise him.

16:10 The fifth angel emptied his bowl over the throne of the beast and its whole empire was plunged into darkness. Men were biting their tongues for pain,

16:11 but instead of repenting for what they had done, they cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores.

16:12 The sixth angel emptied his bowl over the great river Euphrates; all the water dried up so that a way was made for the kings of the East[*a] to come in.

16:13 Then from the jaws of dragon and beast and false prophet I saw three foul spirits come; they looked like frogs

16:14 and in fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles, going out to all the kings of the world to call them together for the war of the Great Day of God the Almighty.-

16:15 This is how it will be: I shall come like a thief. Happy is the man who has stayed awake and not taken off his clothes so that he does not go out naked and expose his shame. –

16:16 They called the kings together at the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon.[*b]

16:17 The seventh angel emptied his bowl into the air, and a voice shouted from the sanctuary, ‘The end has come’.

16:18 Then there were flashes of lightning and peals of thunder and the most violent earthquake that anyone has ever seen since there have been men on the earth.[*c]

16:19 The Great City was split into three parts and the cities of the world collapsed; Babylon the Great was not forgotten: God made her drink the full winecup of his anger.

16:20 Every island vanished and the mountains disappeared;

16:21 and hail, with great hailstones weighing a talent each, fell from the sky on the people. They cursed God for sending a plague of hail; it was the most terrible plague.

JB REVELATION Chapter 17

B. THE PUNISHMENT OF BABYLON

The famous prostitute

17:1 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the punishment given to the famous prostitute[*a] who rules enthroned beside abundant waters[*,]b

17:2 the one with whom all the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and who has made all the population of the world drunk with the wine of her adultery’.[*c]

17:3 He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it.

17:4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her fornication;

17:5 on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on the earth’.

17:6 I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified.

17:7 The angel said to me, ‘Don’t you understand? Now I will tell you the meaning of this woman, and of the beast she is riding, with the seven heads and the ten horns.

The symbolism of the beast and the prostitute

17:8 ‘The beast you have seen once was and now is not;[*d] he is yet to come up from the Abyss, but only to go to his destruction. And the people of the world, whose names have not been written since the beginning of the world in the book of life, will think it miraculous when they see how the beast once was and now is not and is still to come.

17:9 Here there is need for cleverness, for a shrewd mind; the seven heads are the seven hills, and the woman is sitting on them.

17:10 The seven heads are also seven emperors. Five of them have already gone, one is here now, and one is yet to come; once here, he must stay for a short while.

17:11 The beast, who once was and now is not, is at the same time the eighth and one of the seven, and he is going to his destruction.

17:12 The ten horns are ten kings[*e] who have not yet been given their royal power but will have royal authority only for a single hour and in association with the beast.

17:13 They are all of one mind in putting their strength and their powers at the beast’s disposal,

17:14 and they will go to war against the Lamb; but the Lamb is the Lord of lords and the King of kings,[*f] and he will defeat them and they will be defeated by his followers, the called, the chosen, the faithful.’

17:15 The angel continued, ‘The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the languages.

17:16 But the time will come when the ten horns and the beast will turn against the prostitute, and strip off her clothes and leave her naked;[*g] then they will eat her flesh and burn the remains in the fire.

17:17 In fact, God influenced their minds to do what he intended, to agree together to put their royal powers at the beast’s disposal until the time when God’s words should be fulfilled.

17:18 The woman you saw is the great city which has authority over all the rulers on earth.’

JB REVELATION Chapter 18

An angel announces the fall of Babylon

18:1 After this, I saw another angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth was lit up with his glory.[*a]

18:2 At the top of his voice he shouted, ‘Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils[*b] and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird.

18:3 All the nations have been intoxicated by the wine of her prostitution; every king in the earth has committed fornication with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery.’

The people of God summoned away

18:4 A new voice spoke from heaven; I heard it say, ‘Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear.

18:5 Her sins have reached up to heaven,[*c] and God has her crimes in mind:

18:6 she is to be paid in her own coin.[*d] She must be paid double the amount she exacted. She is to have a doubly strong cup of her own mixture.

18:7 Every one of her shows and orgies is to be matched by a torture or a grief. I am the queen on my throne, she says to herself,[*e] and I am no widow and shall never be in mourning.

18:8 For that, within a single day, the plagues will fall on her: disease and mourning and famine. She will be burnt right up. The Lord God has condemned her, and he has great power.’

The people of the world mourn for Babylon

18:9 There will be mourning and weeping for her by the kings of the earth who have fornicated with her and lived with her in luxury. They see the smoke as she burns,

18:10 while they keep at a safe distance from fear of her agony. They will say: ‘Mourn, mourn for this great city, Babylon, so powerful a city, doomed as you are within a single hour’.

18:11 There will be weeping and distress over her among all the traders of the earth when there is nobody left to buy their cargoes of goods;

18:12 their stocks of gold and silver, jewels and pearls, linen and purple and silks and scarlet; all the sandalwood, every piece in ivory or fine wood, in bronze or iron or marble;

18:13 the cinnamon and spices, the myrrh and ointment and incense; wine, oil, flour and corn; their stocks of cattle, sheep, horses and chariots, their slaves, their human cargo.

18:14 ‘All the fruits you had set your hearts on have failed you; gone for ever, never to return, is your life of magnificence and ease.’

18:15 The traders who had made a fortune out of her will be standing at a safe distance from fear of her agony, mourning and weeping.

18:16 They will be saying: ‘Mourn, mourn for this great city; for all the linen and purple and scarlet that you wore, for all your finery of gold and jewels and pearls;

18:17 your riches are all destroyed within a single hour’. All the captains and seafaring men, sailors and all those who make a living from the sea will be keeping a safe distance,

18:18 watching the smoke as she burns, and crying out, ‘Has there ever been a city as great as this!’

18:19 They will throw dust on their heads and say, with tears and groans: ‘Mourn, mourn for this great city whose lavish living has made a fortune for every owner of a sea-going ship; ruined within a single hour.’

18:20 ‘Now heaven, celebrate her downfall, and all you saints, apostles and prophets: God has given judgement for you against her.’

18:21 Then a powerful angel picked up a boulder like a great millstone, and as he hurled it into the sea, he said, ‘That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be seen again.

18:22 Never again in you, Babylon, will be heard the song of harpists and minstrels, the music of flute and trumpet; never again will craftsmen of every skill be found or the sound of the mill[*f] be heard;

18:23 never again will shine the light of the lamp, never again will be heard the voices of bridegroom and bride. Your traders were the princes of the earth, all the nations were under your spell.

18:24 In her you will find the blood of prophets and saints, and all the blood that was ever shed on earth.’

JB REVELATION Chapter 19

Songs of victory in heaven

19:1 After this I seemed to hear the great sound of a huge crowd in heaven, singing, ‘Alleluia! Victory and glory and power to our God!

19:2 He judges fairly, he punishes justly, and he has condemned the famous prostitute who corrupted the earth with her fornication; he has avenged his servants that she killed’.

19:3 They sang again, ‘Alleluia! The smoke of her will go up for ever and ever.’

19:4 Then the twenty-four elders and the four animals prostrated themselves and worshipped God seated there on his throne, and they cried, ‘Amen, Alleluia’.

19:5 Then a voice came from the throne; it said, ‘Praise our God, you servants of his and all who, great or small, revere him’.

19:6 And I seemed to hear the voices of a huge crowd, like the sound of the ocean or the great roar of thunder, answering, ‘Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun;

19:7 let us be glad and joyful and give praise to God, because this is the time for the marriage of the Lamb.

19:8 His bride is ready, and she has been able to dress herself in dazzling white linen, because her linen is made of the good deeds of the saints.’

19:9 The angel said, ‘Write this: Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb’, and he added, ‘All the things you have written are true messages from God’.

19:10 Then I knelt at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘Don’t do that: I am a servant just like you and all your brothers who are witnesses to Jesus. It is God that you must worship.’ The witness Jesus gave is the same as the spirit of prophecy.

C. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PAGAN NATIONS

The first battle of the End

19:11 And now I saw heaven open, and a white horse appear; its rider was called Faithful and True; he is a judge with integrity[*a], a warrior for justice.

19:12 His eyes were flames of fire, and his head was crowned with many coronets; the name written on him was known only to himself,

19:13 his cloak was soaked in blood[*b] He is known by the name, The Word of God.

19:15 From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the pagans with; he is the one who will rule them with an iron sceptre,[*c] and tread out the wine of Almighty God’s fierce anger.

19:16 On his cloak and on his thigh[*d] there was a name written: The King of kings and the Lord of lords.

19:17 I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he shouted aloud to all the birds that were flying high overhead in the sky, Come here. Gather together at the great feast[*e] that God is giving.

19:18 There will be the flesh of kings for you, and the flesh of great generals and heroes, the flesh of horses and their riders and of all kinds of men, citizens and slaves, small and great.’

19:19 Then I saw the beast, with all the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to fight the rider and his army.

19:20 But the beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had worked miracles on the beast’s behalf and by them had deceived all who had been branded with the mark of the beast and worshipped his statue. These two were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur.

19:21 All the rest were killed by the sword of the rider, which came out of his mouth, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

JB REVELATION Chapter 20

The reign of a thousand years

20:1 Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key of the Abyss in his hand and an enormous chain.

20:2 He overpowered the dragon, that primeval serpent which is the devil and Satan, and chained him up for a thousand years.

20:3 He threw him into the Abyss, and shut the entrance and sealed it over him, to make sure he would not deceive the nations again until the thousand years had passed. At the end of that time he must be released, but only for a short while.

20:4 Then I saw some thrones, and I saw those who are given the power to be judges[*a] take their seats on them. I saw the souls of all who had been beheaded for having witnessed for Jesus and for having preached God’s word, and those who refused to worship the beast or his statue and would not have the brand-mark on their foreheads or hands; they came to life, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

20:5 This is the first resurrection; the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over.

20:6 Happy and blessed are those who share in the first resurrection; the second death cannot affect them but they will be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him for a thousand years.

The second battle of the End

20:7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison

20:8 and will come out to deceive all the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog,[*b] and mobilise them for war. His armies will be as many as the sands of the sea;

20:9 they will come swarming over the entire country and besiege the camp of the saints, which is the city that God loves. But fire will come down on them from heaven[*c] and consume them.

20:10 Then the devil, who misled them, will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet are, and their torture will not stop, day or night, for ever and ever.

The punishment of the pagans

20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and the One who was sitting on it. In his presence, earth and sky vanished, leaving no trace.

20:12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing in front of his throne, while the book of life was opened, and other books opened which were the record of what they had done in their lives, by which the dead were judged.

20:13 The sea gave up all the dead who were in it;

20:14 Death and Hades were emptied of the dead that were in them; and every one was judged according to the way in which he had lived. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the burning lake. This burning lake is the second death;

20:15 and anybody whose name could not be found written in the book of life was thrown into the burning lake.

JB REVELATION Chapter 21

D. THE JERUSALEM OF THE FUTURE

The heavenly Jerusalem

21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ;[*a] the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea.

21:2 I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband.

21:3 Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people,[*b] and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them.

21:4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes;[*c] there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.’

21:5 Then the One sitting on the throne spoke: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ he said. ‘Write this: that what I am saying is sure and will come true.’

21:6 And then he said, ‘It is already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty;

21:7 it is the rightful inheritance of the one who proves victorious; and I will be his God and he a son to me.[*d]

21:8 But the legacy for cowards, for those who break their word, or worship obscenities, for murderers and fornicators, and for fortune-tellers, idolaters or any other sort of liars, is the second death in the burning lake of sulphur.’

The messianic Jerusalem

21:9 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married’.

21:10 In the spirit, he took me to the top of an enormous high mountain[*e] and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven.

21:11 It had all the radiant glory of God[*f] and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond.

21:12 The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel;

21:13 on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates[*g].

21:14 The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

21:15 The angel that was speaking to me was carrying a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and wall.

21:16 The plan of the city is perfectly square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with his rod and it was twelve thousand furlongs in length and in breadth, and equal in height.

21:17 He measured its wall, and this was a hundred and forty-four cubits high – the angel was using the ordinary cubit.

21:18 The wall was built of diamond, and the city of pure gold, like polished glass.

21:19 The foundations of the city wall were faced with all kinds of precious stone: the first with diamond, the second lapis lazuli, the third turquoise, the fourth crystal,

21:20 the fifth agate, the sixth ruby, the seventh gold quartz, the eighth malachite, the ninth topaz, the tenth emerald, the eleventh sapphire and the twelfth amethyst.

21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made of a single pearl, and the main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

21:22 I saw that there was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple,

21:23 and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.

21:24 The pagan nations will live by its light[*h] and the kings of the earth will bring it their treasures.

21:25 The gates of it will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there –

21:26 and the nations will come, bringing their treasure and their wealth.

21:27 Nothing unclean may come into it: no one who does what is loathsome or false, but only those who are listed in the Lamb’s book of life.

JB REVELATION Chapter 22

22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear

22:2 down the middle of the city street. On either side of the river were the trees of life, which bear twelve crops of fruit in a year, one in each month, and the leaves of which are the cure for the pagans.[*a]

22:3 The ban will be lifted.[*b] The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in its place in the city; his servants will worship him,

22:4 they will see him face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.

22:5 It will never be night again and they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them. They will reign for ever and ever.

22:6 The angel said to me, ‘All that you have written is sure and will come true: the Lord God who gives the spirit to the prophets has sent his angel to reveal to his servants what is soon to take place.

22:7 Very soon now, I shall be with you again.’ Happy are those who treasure the prophetic message of this book.

22:8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I had heard and seen them all, I knelt at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me, to worship him;

22:9 but he said, ‘Don’t do that: I am a servant just like you and like your brothers the prophets and like those who treasure what you have written in this book. It is God that you must worship.’

22:10 This, too, he said to me, ‘Do not keep the prophecies in this book a secret, because the Time is close.

22:11 Meanwhile let the sinner go on sinning, and the unclean continue to be unclean; let those who do good go on doing good, and those who are holy continue to be holy.

22:12 Very soon now, I shall be with you again, bringing the reward to be given to every man according to what he deserves.[*c]

22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

22:14 Happy are those who will have washed their robes clean, so that they will have the right to feed on the tree of life and can come through the gates into the city.

22:15 These others must stay outside: dogs, fortune-tellers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone of false speech and false life.’

EPILOGUE

22:16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to make these revelations to you for the sake of the churches. I am of David’s line, the root of David and the bright star of the morning.

22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’. Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come’. Then let all who are thirsty come:[*d] all who want it may have the water of life, and have it free.

22:18 This is my solemn warning to all who hear the prophecies in this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him every plague mentioned in the book;

22:19 if anyone cuts anything out of the prophecies in this book, God will cut off his share of the tree of life and of the holy city, which are described in the book.

22:20 The one who guarantees these revelations repeats his promise: I shall indeed be with you soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus.